Phoenix shoos away that theory. "I'd just come off this run of work and – God, it's such a stupid fucking actor cliché, I'm so fucking embarrassed but – I was like, 'OK now, what do I want?'"
In other words, he was lost. After a decade or so of back-to-back movies – including To Die For (1995), Gladiator (2000), Ladder 49 (2004) and a couple of M Night Shyamalan movies that are best forgotten – he knew he needed a break, he just didn't know what to do. He was 29, of no fixed abode, without any responsibility or family.
"I didn't know what regular fucking hanging-out fun was about in some ways," he says. "It's nothing to feel sorry about, though."